Two local retailers identified by state as selling unlicensed cannabis

Four Green Vision Wellness stores and CannaGlam2022, formerly on Abbott Road in Lackawanna, were among the 52 shops around the state that were sent cease-and-desist letters. The Green Vision Wellness locations that were sent letters by the state are on Washburn Street in Lockport, Abbott Road in Buffalo, French Road in Depew and Niagara Falls Boulevard in Amherst.

The store at 1380 French Road was raided by Cheektowaga police in February, where police seized more than 1,800 packages of marijuana, weighing about 15 pounds, along with cardboard boxes containing thousands of individually wrapped cannabis edibles, drinks and pills.

The Office of Cannabis Management is also investigating additional stores after receiving tips from the public about those shops illegally selling cannabis.

“These stores falsely depict their operations as legal cannabis dispensaries, but they are not licensed by New York State and are selling untested products that put public health at risk,” according to the Office of Cannabis Management.

The office released the names of the stores Thursday after twice denying Freedom of Information Law requests by The Buffalo News asking that it identify the stores put on notice. The letters notified these operators that their failure to cease illegal cannabis sales operations “could permanently bar them from receiving any cannabis licenses in the state” and subject them to “substantial fines and possible criminal penalties.”

David A. Zale, owner of Green Vision Wellness, denied selling marijuana at any of his stores and said he has not received any cease-and-desist letters from the state.

Retailers have not yet been approved by the state to sell cannabis and are not expected to be licensed until later this year. The application process for adult-use retail licenses should start this summer, with the first licenses going to people with a marijuana-related conviction.

However, some business people are already taking advantage of what is anticipated to be a $4 billion industry by opening shops selling pot stickers, T-shirts, other trinkets and club memberships or taking a donation in exchange for “gifting” marijuana to consumers as part of a gray market.

Alexis Hardy, owner of CannaGlam2022, said she has been "gifting" marijuana to customers, believing it is now a legal practice in the state.

The cease-and-desist letter from the state noted that the Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act, enacted in March 2021, “clearly states that any unlicensed sale of cannabis is illegal.” Currently, the only legal means of procuring cannabis products is through the Medical Cannabis Program.

“You need a license to sell cannabis in New York,” said Tremaine Wright, chair of the state’s Cannabis Control Board. “I implore these illegal store operators, and any other stores pretending to be legal operations, to stop selling cannabis products immediately.”

Zale’s attorney Phil Modrzynski earlier this year told The News that he believed gifting is permissible. "You can, in fact, gift marijuana to another person,” Modrzynski said. But Zale would not say Thursday whether he shared that opinion.

In March, Zale appeared in Cheektowaga Town Court on charges of criminal possession of cannabis and criminal possession of a forged instrument, both felonies, stemming from the Feb. 4 raid, as well as an unrelated domestic violence charge from last summer.

Erie County District Attorney John Flynn said earlier this year that the state allows people to possess, or give to another adult, up to three ounces of marijuana or 24 grams of concentrated cannabis. Even possession between three ounces and one pound remains a noncriminal violation, Flynn said.

“All I can comment is that we do not sell marijuana,” Zale said. “We comply with all state laws.”

The stance of the state's Office of Cannabis Management has made Hardy think twice about the practice of gifting, she said Thursday. She is hoping to get a license from the state to sell cannabis once they’re made available to retailers.

Her store CannaGlam2022 on Seneca Street has been open for the past two months after she closed her original shop in Lackawanna due to a “run in” with the police there. She said she has not been charged with any crimes, even after having her store raided.

“I hope that the beginning of this journey for all of us is one that doesn’t get overtaken by the people who never really wanted this before it became legal,” said Hardy, whose business’ Facebook page notes that nothing is for sale at the shop and that donations are only accepted.

There’s also some fear among potential regulated retailers that they could be priced out of the market by unregulated dispensaries, as well as Native American shops – all of whom won’t be paying taxes on the products they sell.

The state’s cannabis revenue fund is designed to invest moneys from sales tax revenue back into communities, such as school districts, reinvestment grants supporting communities disproportionately impacted by cannabis prohibition and drug treatment programs.

“Not only are these stores operating in violation of New York’s Cannabis Law, but they also are breaking state tax and several municipal laws,” said Chris Alexander, executive director of the Office of Cannabis Management.

The state has now approved 203 conditional cultivator licenses to qualifying New York-based farmers and on June 28, opened the application process for those entities and individuals seeking a conditional adult-use cannabis processor license.

However, the Office of Cannabis Management has yet to award any retailers adult-use licenses nearly a year after recreational marijuana was legalized in New York.

Retailers and new entrepreneurs looking to get into the business of selling recreational marijuana and products with higher THC levels are awaiting regulations from the Cannabis Control Board and preparing for the application process expected to begin sometime this summer.